Welcome to The Exclusive Career Podcast (and some good stuff on how to maximize your effectiveness at work)

Welcome! This is the first episode of The Exclusive Career Podcast. I’m Lesa Edwards, Certified Executive & Leadership Development Coach, Certified Job Search Strategist, and one of 23 Master Resume Writers in the world.

This podcast is new – but it’s really a continuation of The Exclusive Career Coach podcast but with a slightly new focus. I’ll be talking about this more in future episodes.

My coaching business is changing too, from Exclusive Career Coaching to The Exclusive Career. I will be telling you more about that, as well.

If you are a high-achieving, goal-oriented mid-to-upper professional who wants to take your career to the next level, you’ve come to the right place!

Every Wednesday, I’ll be dropping an episode. Sometimes with guests, most of the time it will be me. I will be covering all things career management including managing your relationship with your boss, issues around managing your team, executive presence, and setting yourself up for success.

We’ll also cover the job search – interviewing, working with recruiters, how to leverage LinkedIn, salary negotiations.

If you like what you hear, please rate, review, and subscribe or follow.

Let’s dive into our first topic, shall we?

I thought that for episode #1 I would cover one of the things I work with many of my clients on.

As a high achiever, it is so important that you spend as much of your time as possible in what Stephen Covey calls Quadrant II – Things that are important, but not urgent.

As Covey says, Quadrant II is the Quadrant of Quality – where you do important things that lead to real success and long-term viability for your company and yourself.

Examples of Quadrant II activities:

• Relationship-Building/Networking

• Planning/Preparation/Strategy

• Prevention (not putting fires out, but strategically avoiding the fires in the first place)

• Empowerment/Development

I find two things help me make sure I’m spending time in Quadrant II: Calendaring this time in, and reminding myself that, when that time comes, this is what I am supposed to be doing.

After all, your brain will try to tell you that you have fires to put out. Emails to respond to. Phone calls to return. Employees’ problems to solve.

And your brain is right – those things exist.

The challenge, then, is to make sure you’re spending an appropriate amount of time in Quadrant II.

Here are some suggestions:

·       Join, and participate in, a professional networking group (either in person or virtually)

·       Plan to meet 2X/month for 1:1’s with people for networking

·       Schedule 15 minutes twice a week for LinkedIn networking

·       Attend Chamber of Commerce events to network more broadly

·       Set aside time for strategic planning around a project you’ve been meaning to get to

·       Schedule time to meet with each of your employees and make sure these meetings happen – make sure these meetings are developmental and not just reciting what they are doing

·       Schedule time for MBWA (Management By Walking Around)

·       Set aside time to problem-solve something you’ve been struggling with for awhile

·       Sign up with a coach to address something you want to work on

·       Take a course to learn something that will help you do your job better or position you for growth

My question to you is this: What one change will you make that has the potential for a tremendous ROI in your productivity, job satisfaction, or results? Let me know!